Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1887-01-20
A rR,GuTrUL DISASTER.
Details Of the Panic ia London
Theatre Tuesday Night.

(By Analo-American cable TO the Dispntch.l
LONDON. January 19.-Seventeen
dead bodies were found in the LOBBY Oh
the hall on Princess street where the
panic occurred last night during the
progress of benefit entertainment
given by Jewish society. They were
all torn. crushed, and disfgured so that
theremains were almost unrecognizaDle.
Eve witnesses say that the way
strong men who got uppermost IN the
struggle at the door crushed and tram
pied on those who fell down in the con
fiict was indescribly ruthless and brutal,
although. of course. not wilful, 1t being
n supreme case Of "evcry one for hun
self" The hall is fayorite resort for
the Jews of that part of London. En-
tertainments have been given there
every night for a long time past Last
evening the place was crowded The
manager of the Hebrew Dramatic
Club, which was giving the entertain
ment, was on the stage when the panic
began. He perceived at once that
there was no good reason for 1t, and
did all in his power to allay the excite
ment and TO afford all possible facilities
for the exit of the people The hall
has number of entrances, and he had
them all thrown wide open and called
on the people when they would not re-
main to divide and use all the door
ways, but they paid no attention to
him. The whole crowd, as with one
impulse, made for the main entrance.
bodies were found at the bottom of the
stone stairs leading TO the. gallery.
Here terrible struggle took place be-
tween the front of the crowd rushing
from the main floor and the leaders of
the throng which rushed down the gal
lery stairs.
The dead lay mostly in two opposing
rows, the feet Of each row close to those
of the other-one row of heads lying
toward the gallery stairway, the other
towards the opposite side OF the hall.
The faces of the dead were distorted
with agonizcd expressions. The clothes
were completely torn from the bodies
of some of the victim.
A man named Harris Goldberg says
he went to the gallery of the hall, ac-
companicd by his wife and family. a
mel0drama called the "Spanish Gypsy
Girl " was the play. During the per-
formance some boys, in order to obtain
a better view of the stage, climbed up
and exposed the gas-pipe fixed along
the wall. This strained the pipe and
started a leak. Goldberg placed his
handkerchiefoverth leak, and some one
shouted Turn off the metrel " This
shout was raised simultaneously with
cry of alarm from one Of the actors
Oh the stage. Then the people i'll the
gallery rose and rushed headlong down
stairs. Goldberg's wife was torn away
from him and trampled To death. His
six-ycar-old son jumped upon the heads
of the packed mass and escaped by
running over them. The managers are
not to blame for the disaster. The
passage from the hall to the street en-
trance is ten feet wide where the stru%-
! dc occurred, and the doors swing both
WAYS. There ARE several minor exit,
from the gallcry-three besides the
staircase The disaster arose not from
the crowding of the passage, but from
the frantic efforts of the people in the
gallery to force their way down the
crowded stairs. Men and women III
front were driven headlong into the
passage, where they met the excited
occupants of the pit, and there was a
homeless lock.